Chapter 27 - The Missing Pod
Pompeii was virtually silent. The ancient streets were empty; the tourists were all tucked up in bed, and the sleepy security guards were sat in their hut waiting for the next shift to arrive. High above Pompeii the full moon cast a ghostly light over the ruins. The city’s only permanent residents, rats, hid in the shadows, scuttling between buildings and looking for scraps of food. Vesuvius loomed menacingly on the horizon, a dark shadow on a grey night, but the rats ignored it. They had already survived one eruption and would live through a second when it came.
Not too far away from Vesuvius, past Pompeii and squashed against the coast, was the city of Naples. A yellow glow from the street lights hung warmly over the peaceful city and made it clearly visible to boats way out to sea. For now, its residents slept but in two to three hours’ time they would wake up and the city would come busily to life.
A Fiat, with a trailer attached, drove out of Naples towards Pompeii. The roads were empty, and it was not long before it came to a stop on a tiny lane near the east side of the ancient city. The silence made the noise of the engine louder, and the rats looked up until it was switched off.
Four people quietly got out of the car. In two rucksacks and a hold-all, they carried ropes, spades, pocket torches and other things they may need. All were dressed in black and wore climbing harnesses, but only one was dressed in leather.
“Let’s go,” whispered Alexander. “The security guards are changing shifts now. We have about one hour until their rounds take them to this spot and about one hour until sunrise.”
He led the way to the Sarno Gateway, followed by Eric, Ursula and lastly Andrea, who carried the hold-all. The gateway had barely survived the eruption and, despite being partly rebuilt by archaeologists, it still looked as if it was about to fall down. Broken and missing bricks made excellent hand holds. In a few seconds, they had all climbed over and were standing in Pompeii. Rats, lurking where sewage had once flowed in the streets, quickly fled into the doorways. Moonlight reflected off their eyes as they watched the four intruders walk along the Via dell’Abbondanza.
At the field where the pod was buried, Alexander removed a special laser pen from his pocket. Ultra-violet light shone from its tip, and he hastily scanned the field. Near its centre, the beam picked out the liquid he had spilt earlier. It glowed purple. The four of them approached the spot, dropped the bags on the ground, took out their spades and began to dig. No words were exchanged.
When they reached timber, they put their spades down and felt their way along the planks until they found the ends. There were fourteen pieces in total and all of various widths, but they only removed the middle four.
Eric and Ursula quickly removed the ropes from their rucksacks, threaded them through their harnesses and knotted them correctly. Andrea and Alexander then took the other ends and knotted a figure of eight around their harnesses. Beside the hole, the children nodded that they were ready. Andrea and Alexander made sure they were stable and firstly Ursula, and then Eric, was lowered into the hole.
Above the ground, the moon provided pale light but below the surface it was pitch black. Eric took a pen torch from his pocket and turned it on. Ursula did the same.
The hole was uninteresting. Their small spotlights revealed closely compacted dry earth walls, and it was just big enough for the two of them to be lowered without clattering into each other. There was evidence that the walls had begun to collapse inwards and as they bumped into the wall great clumps of soil fell. After more than three metres, they reached the floor. A tunnel stretched out before them, but it was only big enough to crawl down.
Ursula ignored it, knelt down and started to brush dirt from the floor to discover what lay below her. If the pod was here, and she felt that it was, then they would be standing right on top of it.
Eric was not feeling good. He was breathing quickly and sweating. This reminded him too much of the cellar passageway back at his villa in Prague. Bravely, he tried to calm himself down by using deep breaths and bent down to the powdery ground to help Ursula. Before he began to dig, he shone his torch along the tunnel and a smiling skeleton was suddenly spotlit by the beam. Unable to stop himself Eric screamed, scrambled back to Ursula and started to hyperventilate.
Straightaway, Ursula stopped and pointed her torch at Eric. His forehead was dripping with sweat and his chest rose and fell at an alarming rate. The rope that was secured to Eric’s harness dangled between them. She took hold of it and tugged twice. The rope became tense and slowly Eric began to rise towards the surface. Ursula followed him with her torch and then pointed it back towards the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a flash as the torchlight reflected off something shiny.
Where Eric had scrambled away from the tunnel, his heels had dug deep into the earth to reveal what looked like smooth metal.
It has to be the pod, thought Ursula and bent down to look.
As she did so, she glanced up the tunnel and came face to face with the skeleton. Nervously she began to laugh, looked away and started to reveal more of the pod. Every now and again she looked up to make sure the skeleton had not moved.
After a few minutes of brushing away the dirt into the tunnel, she had revealed almost a square metre of the pod. A few minutes later she had uncovered all the ground below her. She sat on the edge of the tunnel with her back to the skeleton, scanned the pod with her pen torch and thought about what to do next.
Two things struck her. The first was that the pod was buried and therefore stuck in the ground, which made it impossible to remove before sunrise. The second was that there was no visible door to enter the pod by and retrieve the discs.
There was nothing she could do except try and get into the pod. First she stroked it, trying to find a lip or a hole that she could force open with her fingers. There was nothing, so she banged on the surface with her fist. Nothing happened. Her only other option was to jump up and down on it. She did this, but once again nothing happened. Defeated, she sat back down at the tunnel entrance. Her harness suddenly tightened, and she felt a short, sharp tug. It was one of their signs, and it meant ‘be quick.’
How could she be quick when nothing was happening? she thought.
She dropped her head and wished the pod would open.
There was another sharp tug, and she looked back at the pod. At the end of her feet, a circular opening just big enough for her to fit through, had appeared. Without wasting any time she leapt onto her belly, held the torch in her mouth and leaned her head into the pod. The unsteady torch beam made it difficult for her to see clearly. However, she saw what looked like a red bed, some wires and then the beam reflected off something. She stretched into the pod and ran her hands over where she had seen the reflection. Her fingers felt around a small, slim circular object, and then another and another and another. As she searched for the fifth, she felt the harness tighten and then she lifted off the ground. Desperately she tried to pull herself back, and clawed at the pod, but she was rising too rapidly. In her hands, she held four discs numbered one, two, three and four. Once again disc five was out of reach, she thought, except, except...
She had seen it somewhere, but she couldn’t remember where. Carefully she slipped the four discs into a small wallet that was strapped to her chest underneath her loose black top. Just before she was pulled out of the hole, she looked back down at the pod. It had resealed, and there was no sign of the opening.
Andrea’s fingers moved fast over the harness. She unclipped Ursula from the rope and threw it on the floor.
“What’s happening?” asked Ursula, her voice sounding loud in the silent city.
Andrea did not reply; she just pointed to the lane and towards Naples. In the distance, Ursula could see two sets of car headlights speeding towards them, slashing the darkness into strips.
Andrea broke into a run back towards the Sarno gateway. The hold-all she carried
swung wildly in her hand. Ursula understood the urgency of the situation and followed. Eric and Alexander were already at the gate and climbing over. The headlights were getting closer, and Ursula ran faster. Just before the gate she stumbled on a loose cobble; her left foot twisted painfully underneath her, and she slammed into the crumbling brick. Fear kept her going and, using only her arms she pulled herself up the tall gateway. At the top, she could see the other vehicles approaching, and they were not far away. She jumped down to the other side instinctively, as if she was jumping between buildings back in Paris.
Ursula hit the ground hard and, though her right leg cushioned most of the impact, her left foot could not support her weight and buckled. Pain screamed through her body, and she collapsed to the floor, rolled forward and then stopped. As she looked up she saw Andrea climbing into the Fiat and heard the car engine fire up. Coming quickly up the lane towards them were the headlights of the other two vehicles. She knew she wasn’t going to make it; she couldn’t stand up.
Fear and a sense of failure gripped her but before she could start to cry the Fiat’s rear door opened and Eric sprung out. He sprinted towards her, placed his hands under her armpits and lifted her into a standing position.
“I’m not leaving my PPP behind,” he said strongly.
The headlights were almost upon them but with Eric’s help she managed to hop to the car. The headlights were right behind them now and lit up the Fiat. Ursula jumped onto the back seat, Eric followed and, without waiting for the door to be closed, Alexander sped off.
“This is Yukon One. We are in pursuit,” said Agent Ypsilon, fixing his sights on the Fiat in front, and he pushed the accelerator down.
“This is Yukon Two. We will retrieve the pod,” said Agent Beta and he stopped his jeep where the Fiat had been parked.
From past experience, Alexander knew that driving at speed with an attached trailer was not easy. Even though the trailer was empty, it pulled the rear of the Fiat out with every bend and caused the car to skid. The last thing he wanted was to crash and kill them all.
Eric fought to close the door and just as he managed it Andrea ordered them to put their seat belts on.
It was a task easier said than done. The lane was uneven and full of pot holes, and the car skidded at almost every turn. This made it hard for the children to stay in one place long enough to fasten their seat belts. An added difficulty for Ursula was her ankle that throbbed painfully. Every bounce or skid sent her clattering into either Eric or the door, and shot further pains up her leg. Despite trying desperately to hold them back, tears welled up in her eyes.
Alexander looked at the speedometer - eighty, eighty-five, ninety kilometres per hour. They were accelerating, but their pursuers were easily keeping up and getting closer by the second. Alexander looked briefly into his rear view mirror. The Yukon was so close he could see the perfect, white-toothed smiles of the three people inside.
“This is Agent Ypsilon. We are on the bandits’ tail, awaiting instructions. Please confirm - are we looking for closure or seizure?”
Deep in the tunnels, Agent Angel paced up and down in front of the screens. A fat cigar, rather than a cigarette, sat comfortably between his large fingers. From a camera fitted inside the Yukon, he could see the trailer, the Fiat and the bobbing heads of the four thorns in his side. They were obviously smart. They had proven that with their little vanishing act from Pompeii, but he was smarter still, and the current situation proved that.
His pacing was not due to fear or worry but excitement. He loved the thrill of the chase, the prey in sight and the wait before the certain kill. However, in this situation it could be more beneficial if the prey were brought back alive. After careful consideration, he stopped and took a long drag of his cigar.
“I just love the smell of victory in the morning,” he said quietly to himself and then gave his orders. “Render the boy and bring him here. Dispense with the Elf, the Street Kid and Red Cap. They are just collateral damage.”
“Yes, Sir,” answered the three members of Team Omega in Yukon One.
This was the kind of order they liked to hear. As far as they were concerned the Fiat in front was going nowhere. It was slow anyway, but the trailer made the chase even easier.
Like chasing a deer with a broken leg, reflected Agent Zeta, winding down his window.
In his hand, he held the OSS regulation revolver. He took careful aim, fired and deliberately sent his first shot over the car.
In the back of the Fiat, Ursula and Eric ducked down.
“They’re shooting at us, really shooting,” exclaimed Eric in disbelief.
Without panicking Andrea looked back at them, “But they are not aiming directly at us. They are simply trying to scare us. It is OSS protocol. It means we are more valuable to them while alive, or one of us is.”
“Andrea’s correct,” said Alexander, spinning the steering wheel and skidding around a tight bend. “If they wanted to hit us they...”
He was interrupted by the sudden explosion of his wing mirror. Broken shards of glass scratched against the window and fell onto the road. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, Andrea’s wing mirror was shot off the car and crushed noisily under the rear wheels.
“They have excellent aim. This proves that if they wanted to harm us they would have done so by now,” stated Andrea. She spoke so calmly that it was hard to believe they were on a tiny lane, in the dark, in a high-speed chase, being fired upon.
Alexander was not as calm as Andrea and rushed his words, “They can’t get past us. It is an old ploy. They’re trying to scare us. I’m going to drive into Naples and try to lose them. If we do, we can still make the rendez-vous with Captain Hudson.”
He then spun the car hard to the right and onto a two lane road towards the yellow glow of the city. There were not enough cars on this road to slow them down, but there were enough to put an end to the OSS’s shooting.
“Stay with them Yukon One but do not engage,” instructed Agent Angel and took a triumphant drag from his cigar.
Both vehicles soon reached Naples and dropped their speed as they entered the suburbs. The OSS Agents were in no rush and were happy just to wait, safe in the knowledge that ‘amateurs’ always make mistakes.
It was still dark, and most of Naples had not yet woken up. The narrow, disorganized streets were packed with parked cars and piles of rubbish lay on street corners. The rubbish collectors were just beginning their rounds, and they were joined by fruit sellers driving into the city. Random lights began to flick on from the tightly packed apartment buildings and a few people stepped onto their balconies to smell the salty, sea air.
“Where are we going, Alexander?” asked Ursula. Her voice was strained, and she sounded in pain.
Alexander checked his mirror. The Yukon was still there, and the men inside were still smiling.
“We are going to drive around Naples until she wakes up and then, at rush hour, we’re going to leave the car and lose the OSS on foot.”
Eric understood very well that this was not the best plan. When Alexander and he had covered this situation during their imprisonment they had both agreed it was a last resort and nothing else. There were too many things that could happen and too many variables. It was too risky, and the Naples road layout was terrible to say the least.
No sooner had he thought this than a diversion sign appeared and forced Alexander into following another route. A few minutes later they were unwillingly driving up a small hill and heading out of the city. Alexander was sure he could see behind them the OSS rubbing their hands in glee.
The long, straight road they were on had thick concrete barriers down its centre. It was impossible to do a U-turn, and return to the city. They had no option but to continue onwards, heading towards Vesuvius.
The volcano loomed ahead of them. As the sun rose an orange glow pulled it out of the darkness turning it into a beacon. It was
a beacon that Alexander would rather have avoided. If he ended up on the narrow, mountain roads he knew he would have no choice but to drive to the summit and a dead end. The way up was also the only way down.
The single lane road became two lanes, and the central concrete barriers ran out. Alexander pressed his foot hard on the accelerator, and their speed crept up from sixty to seventy, eighty and then to ninety. Before they hit one hundred, the Yukon overtook them with ease and screeched to a halt over both lanes directly in front of them. Two guns were trained on their Fiat.
Alexander had no option but to yank the wheel hard to the right. The Fiat and the trailer skidded across the entire highway and onto a much narrower road. Alexander sighed with relief and then swore. They were on the road that led up to the volcano. He checked his mirror to see if he could turn back, but the Yukon was already behind them.
There was no need to go so fast on the windy lane. Nobody could overtake easily, and Alexander dropped down to a safer speed. Trees growing beside the road stopped whizzing past and came into focus. The darkness was slowly lifting, and the orange glow of dawn made driving easier.
“There’s nowhere to go,” stated Eric, from the rear of the car.
“Up,” replied Andrea matter-of-factly.
“And that is where we are going, whether we like it or not,” said Alexander.
Ursula said nothing. The pain from her ankle had taken over her senses, and she could not concentrate on anything else, no matter how hard she tried.
“What is the plan?” asked Andrea.
Alexander glanced briefly at Eric in the rear-view mirror. He looked as lost as Eric felt.
“We don’t have one,” answered Eric sheepishly.
“Being chased up a sleeping volcano at dawn by the OSS was not a scenario we anticipated,” added Alexander, ramming the car down into third gear. “The best plan, as far as I can see, is to outrun them on foot when we reach the top.”
Silence gripped the car and then Ursula whispered, “We can’t out run them. But we could release the trailer. That would slow them down and give us a chance.”
Her idea was greeted with enthusiasm and Eric promptly unclipped his seatbelt. He shuffled towards Ursula, pulled the back of his car seat down and crawled into the hatchback boot. Despite the car turning left and right around the narrow bends, he managed to wedge himself so he hardly moved.
“There should be a clip just at the bottom of the boot door, flick it but hold the door with your other hand, or it will fling open,” advised Alexander. “If this is going to work, it has to be a surprise.”
Yukon One and half of Team Omega were driving close behind. They knew from their preparations that the road was a dead end and that the Fiat had nowhere to go. They decided to dispose of the adults first and then seize the boy, but they were undecided on what to do to the girl. However, there was no one around, and they did not anticipate any problems.
Eric gripped hold of the boot door with his right hand and found the metal clip with his left. As he pulled it up he had to strain to keep it closed. Slowly he let the door open to a gap just big enough for his hand. Wind, mixed with unpleasant fumes from the car’s exhaust, blew into Eric’s face and made him wheeze. He could see the handle that would release the trailer. His hand slipped through the opening and found the cold metal lever. At the same time, the Fiat hit a bump, and the boot door slammed down on his arm. Eric bit his lip until he drew blood, but he kept his hand where it was. Using all the strength he could muster, he pulled the handle up. Nothing happened.
“It’s not working!’ he yelled, and the boot door slammed painfully onto his arm once more. He swallowed his cry.
“There will be a pin,” shouted Alexander.
Eric felt around near the handle until he found it. His arm was hurting, sapping his energy, but he pulled the pin as hard as he could. It would not budge. He pulled and pulled, but it simply wouldn’t move. The car hit another bump, and as the door came down onto this arm, he felt the pin give a little. He pulled it up and the trailer came loose.
Neither Agent Ypsilon, who was driving nor the other agents noticed that the trailer was no longer attached to the Fiat. By the time they realized, they were too close, and it was too late. The trailer hit their right headlight, as they tried to swerve around it, and they were forced off the road. Agent Ypsilon hit the brakes just before the Yukon, plus trailer, smashed into a group of young trees. The agents looked up to see the Fiat disappear from view. Thrusting the Yukon into reverse, Agent Ypsilon tried to separate from the trailer but it had somehow become attached. He drove forward and back, but the trailer refused to move. Only when he crashed it back into a tree did it come off. The Yukon did a wheel spin and roared away, continuing upwards in their pursuit of the Fiat.
The Vesuvius car park was situated about one hundred metres below the summit of the volcano and was on a slope. It was the furthest point accessible by car and, except for a parked van, was deserted. To reach the summit visitors had to walk past a wooden ticket office, through a chained entrance and up a steep path.
The Fiat skidded to a halt under a tree, sending gravel spinning into the air and drawing a half-circle on the ground.
“Get out! Head towards the summit!” shouted Alexander.
Eric jumped out of the boot first and then sped round to the rear door to help Ursula. She put her arm around his shoulders, and they moved as fast they could towards the entrance. They did not look back.
The path up to the summit was covered in loose pumice and would have been difficult to walk on in full health, but for Ursula it was even harder. Eric provided much support, but it was still difficult to keep a steady footing. Apart from the noise of the Fiat’s engine ticking over, everything was silent.
After a few minutes, Ursula realized that Alexander and Andrea were not with them, nor were they following. With Eric’s help, she turned round to look back down at the car park.
The Fiat was accelerating towards the road which led back down the volcano, when the Yukon sped around the corner towards it. The Fiat continued to speed up and, just outside the car park entrance, they collided with an almighty smash. Steam floated up from the crumpled bonnets, and they could see two large cracks on the Yukon’s windscreen.
Neither Eric nor Ursula spoke. Instead, they turned away from the scene and headed up the path as fast as they could. The sun had risen higher in the sky; the sunlight was becoming stronger and, despite tears in their eyes, it was becoming easier to see where they were going. When they reached the summit, they turned around to survey the crash below and frantically tried to locate Andrea or Alexander. They were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, the same was not true of the three OSS Agents who were walking unsteadily past the wooden ticket office. Revolvers were being waved back and forth by the agents, but their hands were too unsteady to fire a shot. Ursula did not want to hang around and motioned Eric forward.
The view from the summit would have taken Eric and Ursula’s breath away if the preceding events and climb had not already done so. They could see Naples, the glistening sea of the Amalfi coast, fields that looked like they had been crocheted together on a blanket, lonely villages and Pompeii. From where they stood all looked miniature, shrunk down to the size of models.
Wincing in pain with every step, Ursula pulled Eric towards the crater. A small, chain fence stopped them from getting too close, and when they looked down, they understood why. It was a massive circular hole with sheer rock and earth walls.
If you toppled over the edge, you would not be coming back, thought Ursula and she moved on, taking Eric with her.
“We have to get back down again,” Eric said and looked away from the crater towards the volcano’s slope.
“I know, but we can’t go the same way. They’re following. We’ll get to the other side of the crater and then go down. But I need a short break first.”
“Let’s head for those,??
? suggested Eric, pointing towards a high pile of sharp looking rocks half-way around the crater. “We won’t be seen there.”
As they walked, puffs of steam rose from the sleeping volcano and a soft, grinding noise could just be heard. Neither of them really noticed; their eyes were fixed on the rocks, and when they reached them they collapsed.
Just above Eric and Ursula, the dawn sun was shining brightly, and its rays started to revive them. They basked in the warm sunlight as they sat against the rocks and, after a few minutes, were ready to leave. Eric stood and helped Ursula up. Her left ankle felt better, and she was able to put more weight upon it. When Eric offered to support her, she declined at first but then placed a hand on his shoulder.
They took another look at the crater. A large cloud of steam rose up from the depths and floated past them. Slowly they continued on. Neither of them spoke. They trudged in silence around the summit to the other side of the crater and the furthest point from the OSS. Occasionally they looked behind them but no one was following.
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